Tutor
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3 Messages
Tech Support for OAuth E-Mail changes
Earlier this year my e-mail just stopped working. I would connect and it wouldn't authenticate. So I called tech support. This happened a couple of times, and my e-mail would be down for up to a week before they fixed anything.
The encounters with tech support were frustrating. They kept referring me to the web based email on the ATT website, or suggesting that I "get the app", or that I had a problem with my e-mail client. This was all a waste for time, since it was clear that something had changed with your servers that they didn't know about.
I ultimately figured out that the problem was the new OAuth changes. I went through the procedure and fixed it myself. None of the suggestions by your tech support pointed me toward this solution. They didn't know about OAuth at all.
Now, more recently, a good friend of mine was frantically hunting me down for help because her e-mail stopped working. She had already called your tech support and also Microsoft's tech support. neither helped. Your support still knew nothing and Microsoft tried to sell her Office365. I connected to her via Team Viewer and walked her through the OAuth changes, which basically assign a new password for the e-mail client.
My point: YOUR TECH SUPPORT DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE REQUIRED OAUTH CONFIGURATIONS, WHICH ARE NEEDED BY ANYONE USING A DESKTOP CLIENT TO ACCESS THEIR E-MAIL.
SSE
Mentor
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23 Messages
5 years ago
Hello all,
I'm having a horrible time figuring all this out. I think I'm just too old LOL Can someone help? I received the emails as it seems everyone did, saying to update my AT&T email setting. Wasn't having any issues until I read the emails. The next day I didn't get any email on my phone, except gmail. Was going to log in on my computer to read the email/troubleshooting on how to set it up on my phone. It said, a quick way to find out if my email app uses OAuth is to start setting up a new email account in the app and if it offers me a list of email providers that includes Yahoo my email app (I'm using a Galaxy S8+ BTW) is OAuth compatible. But then it says to Yahoo as my provider. So, I deleted my main bellsouth.net account and then added it back. It seems to be working now. Although I can't log into any of my other bellsouth.net email accounts either on my phone or on my computer.
My question(s) after all that back story are,
If I'm just selecting "email" and then selecting "other" is it going to continue to work or will it stop working? I tried to use yahoo but all that did is make me a new yahoo.com
account (sigh). I have several bellsouth.net accounts depending on if I want to get email from places where I want to look at something and they require an email.
Is any of this mess going to affect my gmail account access?
I feel like I'm rambling, I hope someone can decipher what I'm asking and help me. Thank you in advance from this tired old lady 🙂
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
5 years ago
A lot of clients offer yahoo (maybe gmail, outlook) choices to quickly configure their email client settings. But they don't offer att/yahoo email which uses different servers. If you know how to set up a client's email settings that no problem, The only info you ever need is the services server settings, which for att are documented here. But if you don't know how to manually configure a client that could be a problem.
Since yahoo is usually offered as a choice for a setup (you said it was) I think it's settings are close enough to att/yahoo email (ports, ssl) to use with the exception of the server names. So if you set up for yahoo, get into your settings where the server information is specified and replace the names with those shown in that att server article I referenced. Be careful to chose the right set, i.e., for IMAP or POP, however you specified the initial setup.
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ejp_1
Teacher
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76 Messages
5 years ago
Is my understanding correct that with iOS 12.x.x, which is OAuth2 compliant per Apple, and using the built-in iPad Apple mail that i'm all set and do not need to take further action with my @Pacbell.net domain?
On that note, I just had a 2nd occurance where someone can't send email to my @Pacbell.net domain. Is it a known issue that vintage ATT legacy domains like "pacbell" are being phased out? I've had the email since the dawn of the internet, maybe 30 yrs. For the past year or so, no email from wife's Kohls acct will reach her in spite of many calls to their "tech support". They keep sending yet nothing appears. I finally created her a gmail.com acct just for Kohls and it works fine. Now for me with a WD NAS server at a friends house, in trying to change password it wants to send me a confirmation email. Not received over two days and many tries. Switched to my gmail acct. and works fine.
To enable OAuth with Windows 10 with eMClient, following ATT's directions for OAuth support, I created a new account selecting "Yahoo" from the list of option, vs doing it manually as I always had, the account was auto-created, all my IMAP email/folders are there and works fine. I was amazed at how easy. I never selected Yahoo before because I assumed that was for the old generic plain vanilla yahoo.com that has nothing to do with ATT.
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
5 years ago
@ejp_1
It's the email client that needs to support OAuth2 (backed by the underlying OS of course). Most clients give you a choice of how to authenticate (e.g., passwords, OAuth2, etc.) . You need to explicitly specify that in your client's settings. It's not automatic.
None of att's domains are going away. Do you think they are going screw (probably) millions of users who using those domains?
I suspect then it chose the yahoo servers instead of the att documented servers shown here.
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ejp_1
Teacher
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76 Messages
5 years ago
On Oauth on iPad, it's the Apple email app being used, so pretty sure it's using Oauth.
On the Windows 10 eMClient Oauth issue,
Here's what it says on link you provided for using an email client not listed on the same page. "be sure to select Yahoo...". I did and it worked but, yes, it did select the Yahoo IMAP and SMTP servers. I can always manually set it to ATT, but seems to be working fine with no missing email.
ATT's instructions at your above link where you say "shown here":
"Email app not listed?
Here’s a quick way to find out if your email app uses OAuth. Start setting up a new email account in your app. Your app may offer you a list of email providers that includes Yahoo. If it does, your email app is OAuth compatible. Be sure to select Yahoo as your provider. You’re all set!"
On my pacbell.net domain, agreed seems highly improbable that ATT would mess with that but I spent hours trying to receive email from Kohls and recently our Western Digital NAS server when I wanted to change password to debug why I can't login. 8 or 10 attempts failed to deliver the "change password" confirmation email to my Inbox, even with WD tech support on the line. He said, get a new email address. The admin for the NAS server gave it my new gmail email and it works fine. Doubly odd since I've been using the same login credentials (with pacbell.net) for 2-3 yrs with not one glitch till it suddenly quit working.
Thanks for the quick replies.
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
5 years ago
@ejp_1
I don't care what it says. If you choose yahoo in the client setup and the client chooses the yahoo servers based on that instead of the att documented servers it's wrong. If somehow choosing yahoo and the email domain is taken into account so it ends up using the att servers then ok, that statesmen is correct. So which servers did the client pick up?
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